:WARNING: I tend to get very wordy on posts like this, so it will likely be long.
Arrival
We arrived on the 8th. I had read repeatedly how hot the lobby was, but it was not nearly as bad as I was expecting. Check-in was nice and smooth. After the first part of check-in we sat down with Marysol. She was very nice and a little funny. As everyone reports she pushed the presentation, but not overly hard. Plus, I am good at dealing with people doing that (without being rude), so it didn't last more than a minute before she let it be.
Since we got there a little early, our room wasn't quite ready yet. But, Marysol told us that if we wanted to go have some lunch first, our room would be ready afterward. So, we went down to Aphrodite. While we ate, we encountered a couple we contacted from these forums, and that was after only being at the resort for about 30 minutes, so that was cool. Anyway, as promised, our room was ready and we headed up... and up.. and up. I did not realize the buildings had 3 or 4 floors. But, hey, it gave us a little exercise.
The Room
The room was nice. Nothing too extravagant, but perfectly fine. The bathrooms are fine. Although, given that there is no fan and it is an 'open' bathroom, I would say that.... ventilation (to put it nicely) can be a problem.
) Our balcony was nice, even though there were lots of trees, we had a bit of a view of the ocean, and could see a tiny bit of the pool. The fridge was nicely stocked when we got there and it stayed that way for most of the days, although we did encounter one minor problem with that. We got to the point where we ran out of both water and coke. So, we left a note for the maid and set it next to her tip asking for those. After coming back to the room later, it was cleaned, but the fridge was not restocked. Ok, no biggie, I decided I would call down for some. They said it would be no problem, and my wife and I left the room again. We came back a while later and found water, but no coke. So, I called down again and asked again, and they said they ran out of coke. I thought that was kind of odd that a big expensive resort would not keep enough on hand to meet their guests needs. But, it was a minor annoyance. They did have it restocked the next day and throughout the rest of the trip though.The Restaurants
First, I will say that my wife would probably be described as 'foodies'. So, restaurants are definitely important to us. And I must say they did not disappoint.
Aphrodite:
- We ate here for lunch nearly everyday. We only made it to breakfast once and that was on the day we were leaving. For lunch, it was good. There was a good amount of variety and everything was pretty good. The only things I tended not to like as much the entire trip were dishes with beef. Not that they were bad, but we are spoiled in the states. And since beef isn't a strong point of the region, I didn't go to it much. I tended much more towards fish, and some chicken. But, like I said, it was very good on the whole.
For dinner, Aphrodite was delicious. I can't even remember exactly what I had, but I know my wife and I were impressed.
- This was absolutely great and way more than we could have hoped for. The fact that we could get 4 (or even up to 5) course meals for dinner with a rotating theme for each night was awesome. The presentation of each dish was great and the vast majority of the food was delicious. I think I had 1 main course that I wasn't a huge fan of, but it still wasn't what I would call bad. After going to Pearl the first night, my wife and I knew we would be going there for most of the rest of the trip. The only reason that we went to Aphrodite for dinner one night was because the Pearl had rotated back to a menu that was very similar to one we had earlier. Mind you, it wasn't the same, just similar. Not to mention that we did want to go to Aphrodite for dinner at least once just to sample what they had to offer. One other thing I liked a lot about the Pearl was the atmosphere. I liked that almost everyone dressed nice for dinner there. I say 'almost' because it seemed like there was usually 1 couple that came in with the bare minimum they had to wear in order not to get turned away. C'est la vie.
As people know, the pool is huge and is divided between a relaxing pool and a loud/party(?) pool. We never bothered going
to the relaxing pool because it is just not our style. So, all my comments apply to the other pool. I guess I will start with my critiques.. First, there is no shade at all in the entire pool except for under the small overhang of the bar. I know there is not much that can be done about this, but it does have the unintended consequence of having lots of people trying to huddle up in the shade which can make the bar hard to get to. My wife and I had sunscreen on, so for the most part we didn't get too scorched (except on the foam party, explained below). My only other critique is that I have seen at other resorts that they will have some chairs/tables built into some of the nooks/bends of the pool so people can sit with a drink and chill (kind of like in the hot tub). Not a huge deal, but it would only improve things if they had them. The good stuff: The people and atmosphere were great. Everyone was happy and talkative, much like we've seen at other similar resorts. There are some activities in the pool, but I will include those later.
The Hottub and Beds
This was where my wife and I tended to spend much of our time. We talked to a lot of great people from a lot of different places. Much like the pool the attitude in the hot tub was very open, talkative, and friendly. The beds often had some hot action going on and I never mind seeing that. In fact, my wife and I were on one of the beds the first day letting off a little steam after our travels
. There was even some hot and heavy action going on in the center island of the hot tub a couple of times. But again, it was kind of hot to see. My wife and I love the sexually charged atmosphere. It really gets things going between us and that's never a bad thing. Activities
There were a lot of daily activities going. Some of the stuff included simple but fun stuff like pool and beach volleyball. There was even a special tequila stand that was run by a bartender named Fabian where he had several different tequilas and he would make up different drinks with them and also talk a bit about the background of some of them. Some of the events were a little more racy/kinky/fun like sex toy workshops and pole dancing classes. One thing I want to mention that I was a little surprised at... There were a couple of those events (like the tequila stand and the sex toy workshops) where I just expected them to be trying to sell you stuff. It seemed like too good of an opportunity, but they didn't. I thought that was great and it made us more interested in attending more of them. Oh, that includes a suncare expert that came around and was talking about what sunscreens worked best in that environment and which didn't. I again expected for her to try to sell something. But it was more of a discussion of what types of sunscreen to look for, not a sales pitch.
Staff
First, I must mention that I am horrible with remembering names of staff members unless they really stand out, so some I will just talk about and you will probably know who they are when you see them (or you will already know if you've been there).
The bartenders were good on the whole and I wasn't ever left waiting too long. Also, the drinks were good and strong without being all alcohol. They were just right. But, the one bartender that I have to give a special shout out to is Fabian. He is the one that ran the tequila stand, but I also saw him bartend at the hot tub. He was great. First, talking with him about the tequilas was fun. He knew his tequila and was great at making drinks from them. He would just ask you what kind of flavors you liked (coffee, wine, sweet stuff, etc) and he would mix up something for you and they were very good. That also continued in the bar. I love having a bartender where I can say something like: "I want to try something different.. maybe something with dark rum, do you have any ideas/favorites?" and having them come up with something for me. He was about the only bartender where I asked that that had any ideas... or others did, it would be the most generic and common drinks that everyone already knows. Also, I saw him do one thing that was very small, but he was the only bartender I saw do it they entire time I was there. He was mixing a drink for someone, and as is very common he dropped a few drops onto his hand so he could try it. He tasted it, wasn't happy with it and immediately threw it out. He didn't ask the person if it was good enough (as I saw other bartenders do). He just wasn't happy with it and started over. That's a quality bartender IMHO.
Another staff member that I liked was the tallish blond girl that did a lot of the activities around the pool. I want to say here name was Michelle, but that is very likely wrong. She was always energetic and happy and kept the activities going. She was also the one that taught the pole dancing class. (I went along to watch my wife and the other women).
Also, I must say that the waiters in the Pearl were top notch too. îThey were as good as waiters in many fancy restaurants we have eaten at before.
Foam Party
The foam party was a blast, and I'm not going to try to describe it. I will just let everyone experience it themselves. But, I will give 2 pieces of advice: 1) Be careful around the pool. It gets very very slippery. My wife slipped and fell once (no serious injuries, but she did get a scrape and a couple bruises). And even later that night on my way back to the hottub from the bathroom I slipped a little. So, it doesn't go away quickly. 2) I don't know this for sure, it was just what my wife and I experienced. But, the foam seemed to wash away our sunscreen, and we didn't think to reapply it afterward, so we got kind of scorched. In fact, the next day we decided to hide from the sun (wear clothing) and go to Puerto Moreles.
Puerto Moreles
We asked the front desk how to get to Puerto Moreles. He said you could either go straight up the beach or take the road. But, the road is longer because it winds around some. So, we went along the beach. It wasn't bad at all. We got to what I think would be the edge of Puerto Moreles in about 10-15 minutes. After around 20-30 minutes of walking around we came upon a restaurant called La Pepita (hope I got the spelling right). We had heard from someone the day before that La Pepita was good, so we stopped in from lunch. My wife always love finding local spots for food and stuff. So, we ordered and it did not disappoint. It was very fresh fish cooked nicely. Aside from a few restaurants there wasn't a whole lot in Puerto Moreles, so we headed back.
All in all, we had a great trip and would be happy to go back. (Although, we tend not to go to the same place twice, so we'll see).
If you have any questions, feel free to post them. I will try to check back in a bit.
